Job 4:8–21

⁸I have noticed that people who plow evil

and plant trouble, harvest it.

⁹God’s breath destroys them,

and a blast of his anger kills them.

¹⁰Lions may roar and growl,

but when the teeth of a strong lion are broken,

¹¹that lion dies of hunger.

The cubs of the mother lion are scattered.

¹²“A word was brought to me in secret,

and my ears heard a whisper of it.

¹³It was during a nightmare

when people are in deep sleep.

¹⁴I was trembling with fear;

all my bones were shaking.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face,

and the hair on my body stood on end.

¹⁶The spirit stopped,

but I could not see what it was.

A shape stood before my eyes,

and I heard a quiet voice.

¹⁷It said, ‘Can a human be more right than God?

Can a person be pure before his maker?

¹⁸God does not trust his angels;

he blames them for mistakes.

¹⁹So he puts even more blame on people who live in clay houses, ⁿ

whose foundations are made of dust,

who can be crushed like a moth.

²⁰Between dawn and sunset many people are broken to pieces;

without being noticed, they die and are gone forever.

²¹The ropes of their tents are pulled up,

and they die without wisdom.’